There is never enough time to play all the games I want to. Sound familiar?
Video game fans can relate to the idea that there isn't enough time to play everything. It's why we have a lot of backlogs, even though most of us know we'll never get through all of it.
Some of the games I started and never finished are rad. All of them deserve some time with you. As you look ahead to a few weeks of rest, recovery, and socially distanced celebrations, consider picking up one of these hidden gems.
1. Inscryption is a type of cipher.
There is a mental block with deck-building games. I've tried and tried, but they're not my thing. I was going to write off Inscryption, until the buzz got too loud.
That's a good thing, because Inscryption is a revelation. It is a puzzle game that is built like an escape room, but it is not a deck-builder. You're gathering cards. The central puzzle speaks in the language of deck-builders.
Even though Inscryption tailed off for me in the second act, the meta mindf*ck of a story has beckoned me back ever since. It's too easy to ruin this one, so read as little as you can. Start playing when you fire it up.
Play it on Windows.
2. Knight's Never Yield is an aerial film.
The genre of "endless runner" games is popular with the likes of Temple Run. It takes something special to stand out. In a way that positively nails it, AerialKnight's Never Yield_ mixes style, aesthetic, and concept.
Neil Jones created a film called AerialKnight, Never Yield_ which stars a young black man with a missing leg and a talent for parkour. A smooth and stylish mix of sprinting, sliding, leaping, and generally over-the-top acrobatics is required to evade people who want to harm him.
It's Never Yield's sense of style that makes it stand out. Art design that feels like street art in motion and with a funky jazz soundtrack that keeps your head bobbing, makes for a great movie.
You can play it on: PS1, Xbox, Switch, and Windows.
3. A Colorful Tale of Chicory.
Since the summer, I've been checking out Chicory. It was endorsed by Elvie Mae Parian, an associate animator who has since decided to pursue a different kind of creative endeavor. When we first talked about it, Elvie's thoughts on Chicory sold me.
"Chicory: A Colorful Tale is a puzzle adventure game that comes from the same minds behind Wandersong." It looks like a simple coloring game on the surface, but it's really a deeper game about the artistic struggle. You play a dog that has to wield a giant, magical paintbrush to restore color to the world, all while solving puzzles and making many friends along the way. It's a fun game that explores issues through its quirky characters. It shows that we need a little more color in our lives.
It can be played on: Windows, PS4.
4. Overboard!
Overboard! is at the top of my list of gaming regrets. I didn't play it. It's enough to know that Inkle Studios made it.
The studio behind Heaven's Vault and 80 days surprised many with this twist on a cruise ship murder mystery that casts you as the villain. It's a short game, with a typical end game time of around an hour. It's built to be repeated.
It turns out that it is difficult to commit the perfect murder. The more you revisit the ship, the more you learn about the people who live there. Power is defined by your escape from a crime. It sounds like Inkle is having a good time.
It can be played on: Windows, Switch, and mobile devices.
5. Mundaun.
Credit: Hidden Fields.
There's another one that passed me. This first-person horror game from the Swiss studio Hidden Fields is notable right up front for its striking "hand-penciled" black-and-white art design. It pops up in every video.
There's a great play experience hidden behind those visuals where you can explore and solve puzzles as you work to uncover secrets in a valley that's tucked away in the Alps. I don't know much more than that, but the visually arresting presentation and deep cottagecore vibes make Mundaun stand out.
You can play it on: PS1, Xbox, Switch, and Windows.
6. The Outer Wilds have echoes of the eye.
Outer Wilds, the outer space time-loop puzzle from 2019, got in a couple years ahead of what's been a buzzy 2021, but that's just one piece of what makes it great. In a world filled with video games that only want to hold your hand and help you win, Outer Wilds is content to beguile you with unsolvable mysteries.
The return to the basics of play in the new game is not really a new thing. It's a sequel that's technically an add-on, and just getting started on the new stuff is a puzzle.
The less you know, the better. Go back and see what you can find. An epic journey is about to begin.
It can be played on: PS1, XBOX, Windows.
7. Chivalry II is the son of Chivalry.
Chivalry II is an online competitive game. The hack-and-slash experience is an incoherent scream that gets its very own button.
Chivalry II has not much to offer. Once you've finished the controls, you're done with the live testing and can head to the matchmaking area. Knightly prowess is synonymous with sprinting up to an enemy and swinging whatever bladed or blunt instrument you're wielding until you or your opponent have been dismembered.
Chivalry II is a king because of the comedy. Each match feels like an over-the-top parody of every single medieval fight scene that's ever been committed to film, from the auto-revive feature that lets you punch yourself back to life to the entire button devote to bellowing out a "battle cry".
It can be played on: PS1, XBOX, Windows.
8. There is a game called "Minecraft."
Wait, what?
Mojang and Microsoft's blocky world-builder are two of the most popular games on the planet, but those who don't play as often as I do may not know what's going on. The "Caves & Cliffs" update will be launched in 2021, a two-part release that will completely change the shape and character of every domain you explore.
New resources, new plants and animals were introduced in the first part of the free add-on. The second part is a game-changer.
Part 2 of Caves & Cliffs completely changes the way worlds are generated. The update also raises the world's ceiling and lowers its floor, and it also delivers more naturalistic random world generation and environmental diversity. The mountains look similar to the craggy, towering peaks we see in the real world. Caverns have evolved from the small passageways they used to be into larger networks of corridors and chambers.
Caves & Cliffs immediately makesMinecraft feel bigger and more expansive because of the new rules that change the way threats like zombies and creeps are spawned. It may never get a proper sequel because of updates like this. In Caves & Cliffs, it feels like a reborn game, even though it has been around for more than a decade.
You can play it on the following platforms.
There are 9. The city was not as well known as it is now.
I hear you, my friends who keep yelling at me to play The Forgotten City.
This strange adventure came to us from the beginning. Modern Storyteller was the Australian developer that conceived The Forgotten City as a mod. The mod has been around since 2015, but the release of a new plot to move us out of Elder Scrolls-land put the inventive creation on many more radars.
This is a game. The kind of thing where you walk around and gather information. You're trying to understand the central puzzle of the time loop, along with the history of this place. There is an opportunity to live inside The Forgotten City and uncover its many stories, and that is the real lure of the game.
You can play it on: PS1, Xbox, Switch, and Windows.
10. There is a person named Fantasian.
If you don't subscribe to the games service, it's easy to miss the launch of Apple Arcade. That's too bad, because Fantasian is something special.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, the original creator of the Final Fantasy series, was the one who came up with the idea of a turn-based combat game. The presentation makes it stand out.
The virtual environments look like elaborate and intricately detailed dioramas. The game's locations were 3D-scanned into the game after being built in miniature in the real world. It looks like you are walking around in a photograph. You're left with a first class Apple ArcadeRPG that more than justified the service's $5 monthly subscription if you combine that with music from Nobuo Uematsu, a notable name from Final Fantasy's real world history.
You can play it on the Apple Arcade.
